nomenclature changes

nomenclature changes to keratin gene family

10/8/2018

Following an extensive assessment of the keratin gene family during annotation for X. laevis v 9.1 genome, Xenbase genome curators have made nomenclature updates for Xenopus keratin genes. The data analysis for all gene name changes include synteny analyses (which involves aligning with human and other species genomes, assessing sequence conservation, gene order, neighboring genes, location on chromosome), and identifying the number of duplications (if any) in the X laevis S and L chromosomes, and then applying standardized gene nomenclature rules. For example, genes that have been determined to be copies or tandem duplications are sequentially numbered (ie, gene 1 gene 2, gene 3, etc.) and the gene symbol has a ‘point’ then the gene number such as krt12.5 (pronounced “k r t twelve point five”). Not all genes are found in both X. tropicalis and X. laevis, e.g. krt61 is on chromosome 2 in X. tropicalis and on Chromosome 2 in the X laevis.L, but it does not occur on X. laevis.S.

Full nomenclature rules are accessible via a link on the Xenbase home page.

The following changes have been made in the database and are reflected on Xenbase gene pages: